


Try, Try Again

by JustSmileStuffHappens (ksz13)



Series: 911 Crack Week 2020 [1]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: 9-1-1 Crack Week (9-1-1 TV), 911 Crack Week 2020, 911CrackWeek2020, Aging, Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Butterfly Effect, Clairvoyance, Confusing, Confusion, Crack, Crack and Angst, Curse Breaking, Curses, Exhaustion, Existential Angst, Existential Crisis, Fire, Gen, Jealousy, M/M, Magic, Memories, Mental Anguish, Mindfuck, Minor Injuries, Minor Original Character(s), Minor Violence, Psychic Abilities, Side Effects, Stalking, Team as Family, Time Loop, Time Shenanigans, Time Travel, Timeline Shenanigans, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:55:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28768908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ksz13/pseuds/JustSmileStuffHappens
Summary: 911 Crack Week 2020  Day 2 -Time Travel Shenanigans
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Series: 911 Crack Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2109261
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33





	Try, Try Again

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe I should explain things...
> 
> Side note. I'm not going to be doing these in order. Or all of them.

_**Try, Try Again** _

  
  


It was a normal day. They came in to begin the shift fighting small fires with other calls between.

That is until things changed.

Suddenly Eddie was walking back into the station saying hi to Buck, again. 

'What?'

Just like that morning. Just- like he did this morning.

"Hey Eddie. I made it in before you this morning man. How's that?" Buck laughed and called Eddie over for breakfast.

"You're just in time. Kolache?" Chimney said coming through them to the table. Bobby was busy in a meeting on the phone.

Eddie put his hand over the box and looked them both in the eye.

"Eddie?"-"What's up man?" They both asked him as Hen came up.

"Something's not right. Those are donuts." Eddie said.

"What are you talking about? I ordered kolaches dude." Chimney told him confused.

"Open the box." He said as he moved aside to let him do it.

Sure enough in the box was a bunch of donuts not kolaches.

"You didn't check them?" Hen asked before taking one of them.

"I told the guy twice. He swore he got it right. He flirted with me." Chimney looked saddened.

"Maybe he got too distracted to actually fill your order Chim." Buck teased him with a nudge. "But that doesn't explain how you knew." Buck looked at him.

"Because we're living the same day again." Eddie said.

"Like Groundhog Day?" Hen asked, looking skeptical.

"Yeah. Like Groundhog Day."

The alarm went off then for the first fire of the morning.

"Everyone-" Bobby shouted.

"Fire in a shed behind a house." Eddie cut him off. 

"Yes. But." Bobby looked at him.

"I'll tell you on the way."

"So, you're like living déjà vu?" Chimney said over the radio to the others. Kennedy was driving and Zach kept his off unless ordered to or if he had something to say to the others.

"I guess you could say that." 

"And we're gonna cover at least three more fires today." Buck said as they neared the spot.

They got out and aimed towards the back of the structure putting out the fire faster as they prevented the second ignition.

Sure enough Eddie was right.

"Okay. That's not creepy at all. Helpful. But scary to see." Chimney said looking between Eddie and the fire that was done.

The next fires came in at the same times as had happened before. They managed to save the guys fingers that had gotten hit by a truck while cycling.

They were at the last fire that Eddie had remembered. Whatever had caused this was likely to happen again. 

Eddie doubted it was aliens like Buck said but magic or a science experiment was just as weird.

They saved the girl who was trapped inside of the building and made it out alive.

Eddie grabbed Buck to tell him this was his last memory.

In the next second they were in the station again. Only. 

Buck was looking at him. 

"Buck?"

"We were just at-" Buck looked lost and scared. 

"You remember!" Eddie shouted.

Buck looked him in the eye and nodded quickly. "I remember."

"What the hell!?" Chim asked.

"You didn't check them?" Hen said as they came upstairs.

"I ordered kolaches." Chim said, looking disappointing at them.

"Bobby!" - "Bobby." Buck said to Eddie as they headed towards the upstairs meeting room.

The alarm went off and they made it there after explaining things to the others again.

The fire was out. They got sent to another. They saved the guys fingers from being unable to be reattached. 

They were at the same fire again, for the third time. That last one.

The girl was right where they remembered and they got out sooner than the last time.

Buck and Eddie scanned the crowd of people watching.

"Him." Buck said, nodding.

Eddie turned and as soon as he got a look at the guy they were back in the station again, for a fourth time.

Or had this happened before that?

How many times might this have happened before Eddie had started to notice something was up?

"Buck?"

"Hey Eddie. I made it in before you this morning man. How's that?" Buck laughed and called Eddie over for breakfast.

Eddie's heart dropped.

Buck stopped in his tracks at the expression on Eddie's face.

"What's wrong?" He came back down the steps to greet his friend and check on him.

Eddie sighed. "Come on." He grabbed Buck's arm and came upstairs again to talk to them.

They believed Eddie after witnessing the evidence again only this time Chim demanded to check him over for a concussion.

They end up being at each fire afterwards and the truck accident a little later than they'd been before because of that.

This time they managed to get the girl out with time to spare again. Eddie and Buck began searching the crowd along with Bobby this time. 

Eddie made sure Buck's sleeve was in his grasp this time the same way that it was before Buck came back with him.

He recognized the man this time. They were in the crowd looking at him with Buck. 

Eddie made to close the distance and confront him when he noticed something. Buck had noticed who they were going towards finally. 

The guy looked different. Like he was- hurt- sick? Older?

He started saying something.

"Hey! Stop!" Eddie said, trying to reach out to get to him. 

In his next breath him and Buck were back at the station. Again. Eddie was beyond frustrated.

"I saw him." Buck said, coming over to talk to Eddie.

Good. He'd remembered this time. Maybe Eddie grabbing him kept him close enough again.

"He didn't look right." Eddie mentioned as Buck followed him upstairs.

"I recognized him. He was on one of our calls before. But he didn't look like that. Same glasses and mole but he looked younger a few days ago.

A few days ago. That was funny. It could have been years ago. There was no telling past what he looked like now.

Eddie was lucky he wasn't starting to feel whatever was going on with the other guy. 

Buck looked at him. 

"Chim those aren't kolaches."

"What? Hey!" Chim said.

"You didn't check?" Hen asked.

Eddie and Buck moved to get to Bobby as the others followed them after what Eddie said.

Buck told them to trust Eddie and that he remembered the things that happened this time.

"So, you're like living déjà vu?" Chimney asked as they were on the way for yet another time.

When had Eddie begin to notice?

Why was it only him every time that remembered except for when he had a hold of Buck?

Who was the guy doing this?

Was anyone else somewhere also recognizing things? Living it.

They saved the man's fingers.

They made it to the last fire just like every time before that.

Only this time Eddie had a plan.

Once they had the girl out they would try sneaking around the crowd and ditch their gear.

It was their only chance and if he didn't see them coming- maybe.

They got the girl to safety. She was being checked by Hen as the fire was almost put out by the others in the crew. 

They weren't going to be together this time. If Eddie had to go a try without Buck then hopefully it would still be okay.

They knew what the guy looked like or well Eddie did but Buck had a vague description and remembered what he had looked like before all of this happened. 

Eddie finally made it. Near exactly 9:59 pm. He saw him.

He hadn't been noticed yet.

Eddie was quickly making his way through the crowd to him.

He wasn't even sure what to do. Did he fight him? Did he search him? Could he really stop him?

All of this was going through his head. Eddie didn't want to live through this again. It was torture.

Physically he was still ready for anything but mentally he was beyond exhausted from this.

He grabbed at the guys hand from behind him now.

The guy had a delayed reaction.

"You!" He said with anger.

Why did he hate Eddie? He didn't know him. He didn't know. 

"Stop what you're doing." Eddie threatened him right there.

The guy started talking in a language Eddie hadn't heard before. Eddie covered his mouth and saw the thing in his hand was starting to glow brightly. 

He threw it in the ground and stomped on it with all his weight.

Buck was finally coming over. He was in the direction that the guy had been looking towards.

"Le- m- g-." The guy sounded crazed with a look in his eyes.

They couldn't exactly arrest him but hopefully with that thing broken there wouldn't be another repeat of the morning tonight.

In the next moment Eddie was walking into the station. Again.

No. Damn it.

"Hey Eddie. I made it in before you this morning man. How's that?" Buck laughed and called Eddie over for breakfast.

Eddie sighed. Another loop.

What went wrong?

"You okay Eddie?" Buck asked him while coming over. 

"Come upstairs." Eddie told him.

Buck followed without question.

"Hey Eddie. Kolac-?"

"Those are donuts not kolaches Chim. You didn't check." Eddie told him as Hen made a face.

He opened the box in view of the others to see it was donuts.

"What?!" Chim looked confused.

"I'm living through the same day. All this has happened before. Bobby's gonna come out of his meeting for a fire."

In the next second they heard and started moving as Bobby came to brief them on it.

They finished the shed quickly and Chim then checked Eddie for a concussion before he could ask Eddie offered for him to do it.

They made it to that cyclist and found his fingers in record time to help save his hand.

The others were startled but also couldn't question that it was helpful and true to Eddie's word.

After the first few they began to believe but also were worried about what Eddie had said. What kinda effect does that have?

Finally they were going to the last fire. The one that would possibly reset everything again.

The parents were fighting to get back inside to get to her. They'd told her to go outside and wait while they got her little brothers but she'd snuck in to get a pet she had hidden in her room. 

Eddie got her out while Buck made sure the clear the path for their speedy exit thanks to Eddie knowing the layout of the house.

They got out and handed her over to the others as her family came over to the ambulance.

Eddie and Buck were helping to finish up the house fire.

They saw the guy while doing it.

He looked- different. He didn't have the gray in his hair or look as sickly as he had before.

The guy had a look of confusion on his face too though. 

In the next few moments an officer was coming up behind him as they watched.

He was being arrested.

Someone in the crowd was pointing at him and talking.

He was shouting and fighting to get out of their hold only- this time it passed 10:00 pm. 

The fire was out finally. And Buck was right besides him.

"So- is it going to happen?" Buck asked him as they started to pack it in for the night.

"No. It never gets this far. I think we made it." Eddie said to him.

It would turn out that he had started that last fire to draw them out to the house and someone had seen him running from it.

He had some weird shrine to Buck that had pictures from weeks back both before and after they'd initially met.

They were at the station cleaning the rig and waiting for their shift to end so they could switch out with the next team.

"We officially made it to tomorrow." Eddie said looking at his watch while throwing his sponge in the bucket.

"Hope we don't have a day like that ever again. But it was kinda cool for a bit. It was like you were a psychic or something." 

Eddie laughed at that. Was this all a dream? He was awake. He felt heat from that fire and the bump of Buck's shoulder besides his.

"Super Eddie's retired. I'm glad to just be regular Eddie again." He said as they dried the truck.

"But you're pretty awesome as normal Eddie too." Buck said and smiled at Eddie.

Carla had texted earlier that Christopher was going to bed after the great day he'd had. 

"Hey Buck."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for believing me. Even when you didn't know." Eddie said while they finished.

"Huh? Well, I mean. It sounds crazy but- I just trusted that you believed it so it mattered. It helped that you remembered all that stuff and you could tell us about all of it."

They saw as the next team came in and started getting ready so they could leave.

Eddie was looking forward to tomorrow, or well, today.

"I'll see you later." Eddie said to Buck as they left the station.

"Yeah. Text me when you get home. Night man."

With that Buck waited at the exit to the parking lot for Eddie to start his truck.

Who knew what tomorrow held.

Eddie didn't and he preferred it that way. No matter what was coming he'd be ready for it. And he knew he wouldn't be alone.

For now though. He was looking forward to finally seeing Christopher past the photo on his phone and voicemail.

He'd kiss his son's head and go to sleep down the hall from him knowing that he was fine.

They were safe. All of them. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> So like- The dudes been having a thing for Buck. He doesn't know what the spell is doing and think it's too get Buck for himself like a love curse.
> 
> The loops been going for a few times before maybe even a dozen times. 
> 
> At some point they changed their actions and confronted Eddie for stealing Buck's attention. In doing that Eddie was in contact with them as they cast the spell involving him.
> 
> Eddie's mind starts to notice the loop from then on unlike the caster. 
> 
> The caster is slowly dying from the magic using their life force to work. Each loop taking time on top of the time they are living through again shortening their life significantly as the cost.
> 
> If someone is in contact with Eddie when the loop resets and they too remember the last loop themselves.
> 
> Once the talisman is broke the spell still ends up working but can't be undone or redone now. 
> 
> The dude is gonna be in jail for a while with charges from things.
> 
> Christopher was safe and sound unaware of anything happening. 
> 
> Eddie gets to go home to his son after so long away and see him. 
> 
> Our boys are safe and can rest now.
> 
> There weren't any lasting effects on Eddie or Buck since they weren't the ones activating the spell and aside from the mental toll and confusion they'll be fine I promise. Bye.


End file.
